Day 6 - Bechen



08.09: we are going for breakfast soon which is prepared in the church
hall. I got very little sleep but better than a school floor I suppose,
plus I have a plug to charge my phone and stuff. I have also been given
food tokens for the rest of the trip, so I’ve put them in order.



Ok, breakfast sucked compared to Ahrweiler, but it was ok. It was
provided by the World-Youth-Day commission because our new host family
is not providing anything except a bed which is still very kind. Once we
had finished breakfast we headed to the church which was just across the
yard. It was not a Mass, it was just Morning Prayer; with an unusual
twist. They read the Our Father with someone acting as God, interrupting
the prayer giving guidance and asking the reader if they really
understood what they were saying. Quite innovative really.



We then went straight to the coach and set off for the train station. It
was still raining, we got sort of lost again. We arrived at another
smaller station further down the line; here we split into our groups,
mine being led by father Michael.



We got on the train to Cologne; it was packed to the brim. We were not
sure where to get off, until we arrived in Cologne station, then we
knew, hundreds of people where crammed on the platform. As the door
opened the noise hit us like a wall. The amount of people and noise
caused a feeling of euphoria, but we ploughed through and dived to the
loo where we had to pay!



As we left the station we were hit by a building site and a kind of
horrid smell, kind of bad first impression. After walking around we
decided to go back into the station and through it to the Cathedral
which was incredible. The amount of people was insane. After a quick
wander around we decided to head out and get something to eat; easier
said than done with so many people. It took us ages to get our bearings
and find somewhere, but we are here now. I just ordered a pizza and the
biggest beer they do, all in metric, and not knowing metric litres I got
0.5 litre, well good when it arrived. Anyway we are going to head over
to a stadium for Mass, the only big enough building to say Mass to us
all in.



Ok, we got on the underground to the main road, the trams where packed
so we decided to walk, it turned out to be a 5 kilometre (3 mile) walk.
We collapsed into the stadium grounds (outside the stadium) and sat down
on the concrete floor because we were that knackered. We got tickets and
waited for everyone to arrive. The walk to the stadium took an hour and
a half which left an hour to sit around; we played keep-ups with an
inflatable ball. As we entered for the Mass we where hit by a massive
stadium with 55,000 Catholics, not to mention thousands on the
surrounding fields. Mass was attended by the Chancellor and was mostly
in German but the sheer amount of people and occasional translations
gave the Event an excellent feeling of unity and faith. During Mass a
national TV camera crew interviewed john for TV. Anyway, communion was
very impressive, kind of made the feeding of the 5000 look lame. Once
Mass had finished there was going to be a carnival, we split into groups
for people who wanted to stay and people who wanted to go for food.
Unfortunately as we left the gates groups got broken up - a disaster
beyond your imagination occurred (well not really, just sounds good). We
actually completely lost John. The last time we saw him was in the crowd
waiting for the Chancellor of Germany to leave. Then Father Michael
legged it so I ended up with another group; Lorraine’s group. We could
not find a food point so we decided to walk back all 5km and buy
something. There were only nine of us left in Lorraine’s group, so we
made the walk a lot faster. By the time we fell into a café we were
absolutely knackered. We ordered beer and food in our amazingly good
German....... Two hours later and several beers we still had not
received our food. We then got a phone call off Deacon John telling us
the last train was in 40 minutes; we ran (without paying for our drinks)
to the station. We arrived with VERY empty stomachs. The Cathedral
looked very impressive at night with the lights illuminating the ornate
carvings. The train was late which had our hearts in our mouths for this
was the last train home. We were delirious with sheer hunger and
fatigue. The train finally arrived at 00.05, we wrestled on and
collapsed onto the seats. 20 seconds later the train was cramped. We
returned home and started a sing song. Mathew said: 'today has been
shockingly shi*e!' which was funny and true with the only exception
being the mass. When we returned to Bechen the bus to our parish was
still running; thank god (and I mean that!) We finally arrived home at
01.05; I just collapsed into bed with a headache and empty belly.